Something more worrisome than global warming

Blade [June 24, 2011 at 3:53 am] says:
“Finally a personal pet peeve, “One would expect an object of this size to come this close to Earth about every 6 years on average” is standard fare for pop-science reporting, but a professional would state the last time a similar sized object passed this close, how many times in total has it occurred (obviously they must have this data or else the 6-year chance is simply made up), and when is the next one that we know of.
This tendency to give gambler’s estimates is clearly mainstream news media style-sheet meme. At best it is actuarial statistical analysis, but not pure Science, and just sounds very juvenile IMHO. Yes, you normally see a Royal Flush once every 40,000 hands, or it can happen twice in one day. They must be aware that the broader public reads that 6-year thing as a schedule! Science needs to get away from the guesswork and fear-mongering and get back to the facts, Jack.”

Smoking Frog [June 24, 2011 at 5:06 am] says:
“If you had everything you’re asking for, you might find that “6 years” was wrong, but you’d still have nothing more than the same kind of information, a result of “actuarial statistical analysis,” as you call it. Your complaint is nonsense.”

Well I *did* say it was a personal pet peeve, but I’m not sure why you consider it nonsense though. To expect an organization which allegedly employs scientific professionals that I and other taxpayers fund, and which did set a very high standard during the Apollo years, well, to act and sound professionally rather than like Omni Magazine or Erich Von Daniken seems a no-brainer. Apparently you disagree, yes?
The statement “One would expect an object of this size to come this close to Earth about every 6 years on average” is utterly meaningless. It does imply that there is some factual statistical data lying around, specifically a count of similarly sized close encounters, which then underwent some very rudimentary division to develop that lame statement (either that or it was completely made up). You might even say that the statement in question, like so much AGW nonsense, is a form of smoothing of the real raw data for public consumption. Why not simply state the real data and let readers smooth it for themselves by dividing the quantity of flybys by number of years. We are paying for this data, not some homogenized interpretation.
What exactly is the minimum expectation you have for NASA anyway? Presumably you are a USA taxpayer, correct? Well this is what we call taxpayer feedback, feedback from the employers (taxpayers) to the employees (public servants). Do you work for NASA? Just asking.
Anyway, the larger point of my comment is that this is a tiny little ‘press release’, actually more like a Twitter post and does not strike me as high caliber. This does not sound like the NASA that walked Apollo 13 down from the brink. But as usual, YMMV.

we’re not doomed.
2012 is right around the corner. four days before christmas 2012 & all our problems are over. no fuss no muss. sweet, simple, sooo overdue.
when the calendar ends all earths problems will simply go poof.
is it just me? or have earth’s catastrophic problems really escalated in the last 20 years?
asteroids, comets, coronal mass ejections, neuclear meltdowns, bleached coral reefs, no more fish in the ocean (soon, anyhow), super volcanos, WW3, economic collapse, global warming, rising sea levels, radical weather, & on & on it goes. to top it all off, numerous calendars end soon.
so if i choose to live in denial is it folly or prudence in this case?

Presently it is June 27 at almost 08:30, one hour before the originally scheduled time. NASA appears to have modified that press release and pushed the time forward to 1:00 PM …

“Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,300 kilometers (7,600 miles) above the Earth’s surface on Monday June 27 at about 1:00 PM EDT. The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR near-Earth object discovery team observing from Socorro, New Mexico. The diagram on the left shows the trajectory of 2011 MD projected onto the Earth’s orbital plane over a four-day interval. The diagram on the left gives another view from the general direction of the Sun that indicates that 2011 MD will reach its closest Earth approach point in extreme southern latitudes (in fact over the southern Atlantic Ocean). This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday. The incoming trajectory leg passes several thousand kilometers outside the geosynchronous ring of satellites and the outgoing leg passes well inside the ring. One would expect an object of this size to come this close to Earth about every 6 years on average. For a brief time, it will be bright enough to be seen even with a modest-sized telescope.”